Netizen communicology: China daily and the Internet construction of group culture

Abstract

AbstractIntercultural communicology is a complex system of intergroup communication and, in consequence, is a specialized case of human communication in which discourse is constructed in a semiotic world of experience, i.e., the Semiosphere. I look at the Netizen (online citizen) application of semiotic phenomenological theories and categories as we explore their emblematic presence as cosmologies and logics in the sociocultural discourses of the People’s Republic of China. The analysis examines stories published (2010–2011) in the online version of China Daily, a quasi-official newspaper of the Chinese government. The analysis is the main task that Umberto Eco called the semiotic quest for “the logic of culture”. I shall periodically cite the longitudinal statistical research of Richard E. Nisbett reported in his popular book The Geography of Thought. It is important to note that Nisbett’s research confirms the applied practice of the cultural group semiotic in use, rather than theoretically describing the logic constituted by the semiotic systems, which is my goal. In consequence as we shall see, Nisbett makes the mistake of describing the Asian semiotic in terms of a Western logic perspective – not the Asian perspective per se!